HOLT, a parish, in the
union of WREXHAM, hundred of BROMFIELD, county of DENBIGH, NORTH WALES;
comprising the borough of Bolt, and the parochial chapelry of Is-y-Coed,
in which latter are the townships of Cacca- Dutton, Dutton-y-Bran ,
Dutton-Difieth, Ridley, and Sutton, each of which is separately assessed
for the maintenance of its poor ; and containing 1634 inhabitants, of
whom 1058 are in the borough of Holt, 5½ miles (N. E.) from Wrexham, 29
miles (E.S.E.) from Denbigh, and 191 (N.W.) from London. This parish is
the only portion of the grant made to the see of Chester by Edward the
Confessor, of all the lands on the western side of the river Dee, now
remaining to that see. It is supposed to have contained, under the Roman
dominion in Britain, an outpost to the station Deva (Chester) ; and the
fortress erected here, according to some antiquaries, was called, from
that circumstance, Castra Legionis, or " the. castle of the legion,"
preserved in its synonymous Welsh name of Castell Lleon, which, on the
fortress coming into the possession of John, Earl Warren, in the reign
of Edward I., was, probably by mistaking Lleon for the plural of Llew,
changed into "the Castle of Lions" or " Lyons," which it continued to
bear for some time. Its present name may be derived from a family of the
name of Holt, who are said to have held it before this period, perhaps
under a lord paramount.

Warren, after the
death of Madoc ab Grufydd (who had been entrusted to his guardianship by
Edward I., and whom he caused to be drowned under Holt bridge ),
obtained from King Edward a grant of Dinas Bran and all Bromfield, and,
in order to secure his possession, began to erect the castle of Holt,
for which this parish is chiefly distinguished, and which gave rise to
the present borough; but dying soon after, he left the completion of it
to his son William. The castle afterwards came by marriage into the
possessions of Edward Fitz-Alan, Earl of Arundel. On the attainder and
execution of Richard, Earl of Arundel, in the reign of Richard II., it
reverted to the crown, and that monarch deposited here, during his
expedition to Ireland, plate and jewels to the value of 200,000 marks,
and 100,000 marks in money; all which treasure, together with the
fortress, was delivered up to Bolingbroke, in 1399, prior to the
deposition of the king. In the following reign the estates were restored
to the Fitz-Alans; and Thomas, Earl of Arundel, in the year 1410,
granted the inhabitants of the place a charter of incorporation, but,
jealous of the Welsh, who were ever on the alert to throw off the
English yoke, precluded all but Englishmen from participating in the
privileges and immunities which he then bestowed.

In the reign of Henry
VII., the lordship and castle of Holt were granted to Sir William
Stanley, who repaired and altered the castle at a great expense, and on
whose subsequent attainder for high treason, Henry not only resumed the
lordship, but confiscated to his own use the treasures found in the
castle, which, exclusively of jewels, amounted to more than 40,000 marks
in money and plate. Henry VIII. bestowed this lordship on his natural
son, Henry Fitzroy, Duke of Richmond, on whose decease soon after, at
the age of seventeen, it reverted to the king. In the reign of King
Edward VI., Thomas Seymour, Lord Admiral, and brother of the Protector,
had possession of the lordship and castle, the latter of which he made
subservient to the promotion of his ambitious projects, collecting in it
a large magazine of warlike stores and ammunition; but being attainted
of high treason, and found guilty, he was beheaded on Tower Hill,
London, in 1549, when Holt once more reverted to the crown. During the
civil war in the reign of Charles I., this castle was an important
fortress, and was alternately in the possession of each of the
contending parties. In 1643, it was besieged and taken for the
parliament, by Sir William Brereton and Sir Thomas Myddelton ; but it
was shortly after retaken by the royalists, and in 1646 valiantly
defended by Sir Richard Lloyd, of Esclusham, near Wrexham, against the
parliamentarian forces under Major-General Mytton, until, after an
obstinate resistance, it was finally surrendered to that commander upon
honourable terms, in January 1647, and was immediately demolished by
order of the parliament.

Though anciently a
place of some note, the borough at present constitutes only an
inconsiderable village. It is situated on the road from Wrexham to
Nantwich, on an eminence rising gently from a spacious vale, and on the
western bank of the Dee, in the navigable part of its course, and
immediately above the point where this river is joined from the west by
the powerful stream of the Alyn. The parish comprises 2726 acres; the
soil is clayey, and appropriated chiefly to the growth of wheat. The
scenery is not of the most pleasing character, owing to the flatness of
the country and the scarcity of timber; the Dee, in this part, flows
smoothly through a tract of meadows unadorned by any beauty, and which
in rainy seasons are sometimes flooded. The river is here crossed to the
village of Farndon, in Cheshire, by a stone bridge of ten arches, of
very curious and ancient construction, which appears, from an
inscription formerly to be seen over a portion called the Lady's Arch,
to have been built in the year 1345. The Chester and Shrewsbury railway
runs a few miles on the west of the village, passing through the parish
of Gresford. A market formerly held at Holt, has long been discontinued:
there are two annual fairs for cattle, on June 12th and October 29th.

By virtue of the
above-mentioned charter of Thomas, Earl of Arundel, granted with the
royal sanction, and dated from his " castle of Lyons," the place is
still governed by a mayor, two bailiffs, and a coroner, who are elected
annually. By the 27th of Henry VIII., Leon, otherwise Holt, was made a
contributory borough, to share with Denbigh and Ruthin in the return of
a member to parliament. The right of election here belonged to the
resident burgesses, in number at present about 100; and serious quarrels
concerning the election of a burgess have at different times arisen,
from great numbers of strangers being made burgesses of Holt, for the
express purpose of voting at the elections. By the act for " Amending
the Representation of the People," passed in 1832, the town of Wrexham
was added to this district of contributory boroughs; and the privilege
of exercising the elective franchise was extended to all male persons of
full age occupying, either as owner, or as tenant under the same
landlord, a house or other premises of the annual value of not less than
ten pounds. The limits of the borough are co-extensive with the township
of Holt, and comprise an area about nine miles in circumference: the
present number of houses of the annual value of not less than ten pounds
is about fifty. The mayor of Denbigh is the returning officer.

The living is a
perpetual curacy, endowed with £200 private benefaction, and £200 royal
bounty; net income, £130, with a glebe-house; patrons, the Dean and
Chapter of Winchester. The church, dedicated to St. Chad, is a handsome
structure, erected in the reign of Henry VII., in the later style of
English architecture, with a good square embattled tower; the interior
consists of a nave and aisles of equal height, without a clerestory, and
is ninety-two feet in length and fifty-three in breadth, containing 340
sittings. There are places of worship for dissenters. A school was
founded in 1664, by Griffith Roberts, who endowed it with property now
producing £45 per annum; one or two other schools are supported in the
parish, and three Sunday schools. Mr. John Brown bequeathed the interest
of £200, and Mrs. Gartside the interest of £50, to be annually
distributed in bread to the poor of the borough ; and there are some
other bequests for charitable purposes.

The castle was a
strong pentagonal fortress, occupying the summit of a rock, environed on
three sides by a broad moat excavated in quarrying stone for its
erection, and on the fourth by the river Dee, which now flows under its
ruins. It was defended at four of the angles by massive circular
bastions, from which rose slender embattled turrets; and at the fifth
angle, and also at the entrance, by square towers, of which that at the
former was the "donjon," or keep, while the approach to the latter was
protected by a drawbridge and portcullis. Coins of Antoninus and other
Roman emperors have been found here; and slight traces of earthworks,
supposed to be of Roman construction, are yet visible near the castle,
and on the opposite side of the river.

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